In a Future Filled With Electric Cars, AM Radio May Be Left Behind

[pstokely]

a lot of hotel alarm clocks don't even have FM tuners

https://www.yahoo.com/news/future-filled-electric-cars-am-164547763.html

For nearly 100 years, drivers have been listening to AM radio, an American institution crackling with news, traffic, weather, sports and an eclectic variety of other programs.

But that dashboard staple could be going the way of manual-crank windows and car ashtrays as electric vehicles begin to grab more of the U.S. marketplace.

An increasing number of electric models have dropped AM radio in what broadcasters call a worrisome shift that could spell trouble for the stations and deprive drivers of a crucial source of news in emergencies.

Carmakers say that electric vehicles generate more electromagnetic interference than gas-powered cars, which can disrupt the reception of AM signals and cause static, noise and a high-frequency hum. (FM signals are more resistant to such interference.)

[Abolishinist]

1. Interesting. On the mornings I go to the office

I listen to an AM radio station based out of L.A. There is a certain traffic light that, if it happens to turn red, wreaks havoc with my reception - very annoying - all due, I imagine, to the overhead power lines. It seems electric cars can do the same thing.

[70sEraVet]

2. I don't guess I would even notice.

[orthoclad]

3. I wonder if hub-motor vehicles

like the Rivian or the Aptera generate as much interference?

My PHEV gets Am fine. Sounds like an excuse to save a few bucks manufacturing cheaper radios/antennas and skimping on shielding.

[Miguelito Loveless]

4. Pretty much all EVs have cell/internet connections

Simply stream the AM stations.

[orthoclad]

8. I would never pair a phone with a car

All the contacts of the phone get recorded in car memory, accessible to hackers.

I don't phone and drive. They can wait for an answer.

[Miguelito Loveless]

12. I have the option

of uploading my data or not. I don’t.

[tinrobot]

17. Not really. None of that info gets stored permanently.

The car only gets enough "access" to display names/numbers on the screen. That info goes away when the car is off.

You should be way more worried about hackers targeting the phone itself.

[MineralMan]

28. Well, OK, then.

I'm not sure how someone getting my contacts list would harm me, somehow. Maybe you could explain.

My phone is paired with my cars. I can just say, "Hey Google, give me direction to {address}." I like that a lot. Or, I can say "Hey Google remember where I parked." Convenient, huh?

But, you do you...

[Polybius]

30. So you are missing out big time

I can't even begin to imagine a life without pairing my music in my car.

[orthoclad]

31. I have an ipod.

It doesn't have my whole life recorded on it.

[House of Roberts]

5. I spend most of my time listening to a car radio

with the car stationary. I'm usually waiting in the car for my partner to emerge from a store or doctor's office. I don't care to listen while in motion, so electrical interference wouldn't affect me. I do spend most of that time listening to FM for the music, and rarely stick to talk radio, since it's almost all MAGA anyway.

[patphil]

6. So, instead of solving the problem, they throw away something people rely on.

AM radio is extremely important for drivers...news, weather, traffic, sports, talk shows...the list is endless.

They've got to fix that. It'd be a deal breaker for millions of potential customers.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Huh. I've gotten news, weather, traffic, sports, talk shows and all the rest on FM radio.

What am I missing here?

[patphil]

24. AM radio.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

27. They may be on AM, but are also on FM.

Trust me. I haven't bothered with the AM on my car radio in decades.

[orthoclad]

7. Some leftists should buy AM stations

to get non-commercial music and left talk back on the air.

I've fantasized about that for years. Farther reception than FM, and, frankly, I don't see that big a difference in sound quality unless you're using expensive audio equipment. Jimi Hendrix engineered all his early, great, material to fit AM audio response. And I'd rather hear scratchy 1920s recordings than the bland, smoothly manufactured and polished junk on the radio these days.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Good, that will cut out half of those crazy religious and RW broadcasters.

[Aristus]

10. When my local AM station dropped Stephanie Miller

and replaced her with right-wing programming, I abandoned car radio, and just listened to digital music on my commute.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. Has anyone told MT Greene about this leftist conspiracy to take over the world?

[Liberal In Texas]

13. My PHEV has an AM band. The sound is just as good (which is crappy) as any AM radio

in the house or in other cars.

I drive mostly in EV mode and never heard that interference. I do have an upgraded Harman Karden system which may have something to do with it.

But, I don't listen to AM radio much anyway. It's all RW crap. I don't like paying for something that should be free, but I thank the goddesses for Sirius/XM.

[roamer65]

14. All I need is FM and Bluetooth.

[hunter]

16. Traditional radio and television don't even exist in the world of my children and their cousins.

They stream everything. In their cars they listen to music, books, and podcasts from their phones. Their cars radios are just another Bluetooth speaker.

I won't miss AM radio. It's the owners of these broadcast licences who shit all over their own houses and made themselves irrelevant.

It has little to do with electric cars.

[ymetca]

18. I remember when AM Radio

having been mostly abandoned to religious nut-jobs and local yokel stations, and FM being subsumed into national conglomerates, there was a movement to allow "micro-broadcast" AM mini-stations, permitting much more diverse folks onto the airways. In small communities it worked great, with even neighborhood AM radio stations. So you could get this wide array of interesting stuff on AM again, all of a sudden, as you passed through town.

And then Congress killed it, I guess. I think licensing and spectrum management was perceived as being just too unmanageable. But I think we all suspected that powerful interests simply wanted to limit competition, same as always.

At least that's how I remember it anyway.

If you think about it, what's more useful to democracy than a million little micro-broadcasting "town criers", occasionally blurting out something that all of us really ought to hear?

Then the Internet came along and everybody forgot about the fact that AM was still churning out religious and corporate psychobabble all day long. It's where their cult was so assiduously cultivated.

Listening to AM radio these days, you'll mostly get a hefty dose of peak indoctrination into loving Jesus, beer and motor oil. Every once in awhile (usually during local high school football games), you'll hear an armed forces recruitment pitch or two.

[dalton99a]

19. Rush Limbaugh would be spinning in his grave.

[tableturner]

20. Easy solution: listen to NPR!

[hunter]

21. Public radio is the only thing left worth listening to in many places.

I support our local station.

[TlalocW]

22. The best use for AM radio that I ever heard

Was to take it out with when you're boating as it could serve as a warning for thunderstorms - not through any on-air program but electricity/lightning causing it to crackle.

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. I haven't listened to AM in more than 30 years.

[progree]

25. Twin Cities progressive talk radio, AM950

https://www.am950radio.com/

Other than that, I don't listen to anything on AM radio.

On FM, the only thing I listen to is Minnesota Public Radio 91.1 FM

When I jog, I listen to one or the other (usually streaming over my phone and using my data allocation), or to podcasts (Bradblog, Thom Hartmann that are downloaded generally when I'm at home via WiFi so I don't consume my cellphone service's data allocation).

It would be problematical for a long road trip not having AM.

Somehow I will manage.

[Captain Zero]

26. AM reichtalk has migrated to FM here

Some time ago. Even moved the call letters to the FM BAND. Rush was on it before he died. All the spinoffs and local knockoffs wrangle on it now, but lots of people who drive during the day listen to that crap. It's a powerful FM signal too.

[Initech]

29. Good! Cut it off! Let's see how cons do without their daily brain feed.